How To Make Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Very Unhappy This Election Day

“Teachers should be very happy with him,” Silver said of a group that has been protesting Cuomo.

Silver's either high or full of shit - there can be no third choice here.

Governor Cuomo has pushed an education reform agenda that is slowly but surely destroying the public school system.

He has pushed a teacher evaluation system that is unfair, convoluted and forces districts to test students not for true assessment purposes but simply to "grade" the teachers.

He has cut aid to districts even as he has increased the state mandates on them.

He has forced a tax cap onto districts that eventually is going to bankrupt many of them - and continues to add more mandates to ensure that they indeed go bnakrupt.

He has promoted the Common Core and a corporate education reform agenda, then when that agenda became unpopular with parents, he hid behind the skirts of Merryl Tisch and John King as the architects of that agenda but nonetheless continued to push for it behind the scenes.

He has demonized teachers and traditional public schools, he has handed over millions of dollars to his campaign donors in the charter school world and forced New York City to pony up for free rent for charter entrepreneurs so wealthy they can raise millions of dollars in one nightly fund raiser.

Teachers are not happy with Cuomo and neither are parents or students.

Now I know Silver is just making nice at the convention with Cuomo, as were de Blasio and other Democratic Party figures like Schneiderman, DiNapoli, and even John Liu.

They're all making believe like Cuomo is the great progressive governor he says he is and they're doing it for politically expedient reasons.

Cuomo is surely weakened these days by news of the Moreland Commission investigation by the US attorney and by the dissatisfaction with him from activists on the left.

But that doesn't mean he isn't going to win re-election and these politicians know that Cuomo has two options for politicians who work with him in NY State - do what he wants or you're road kill.

So I don't really think Silver's on drugs, and while I do think he's full of shit over that statement, I think he knows he's full of shit over that statement too.

There is no greater enemy to the public school system or the teaching profession in NY State than Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and while I think he'll get re-elected this November, given the amount of war cash he has on hand from his corporate donors and Wall Street friends ($33 million and counting), I do want to see him win with the the smallest victory margin we can muster.

So if you're a conservative Republican who voted Cuomo last time around because Crazy Carl scared you and you thought you could live with Cuomo's "liberal social policies" because he was so conservative on fiscal matters, you should make sure you vote for the conservative Rob Astorino this time around.

And if you're a liberal or progressive who voted Cuomo last time around and you're horrified by his betrayal of progressive values as governor, you should vote Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins this time around.

I'm a realist, sometimes a pessimist, and while I understand many readers out there want to see Cuomo lose his re-election, I don't think the numbers are there yet for that to happen - and probably won't ever be, without a major scandal breaking that does major damage to Cuomo.

That could happen, of course.

We know Preet Bharara chastised the governor for closing down Moreland and we know he has said he is going to take a look into the governor's staff's interference into the Commission's workings.

We know that Cuomo has some exposure to the Christie Bridgegate scandal as well and that his top pick at the Port Authority just testified under oath about the matter.

But barring either of those scandals doing major damage to Cuomo, I think he wins re-election - but you out there can make sure his victory totals are held down so that on Election Night 2014 the media starts talking about how Astorino mounted a better campaign on Cuomo than anyone ever thought he would and the Green Party took a substantial number of votes from Cuomo and gee, doesn't the governor look so sad that he won re-election with under 50% of the vote?